Mr Micawber's Rule for Happiness

People are struggling to make ends meet. I wonder how many people budget their finances?

I've been using a budget for as long as I can remember, despite not really needing to.

The above image is of my budget (and no, you can't see the figures by clicking on it), which stretches a year ahead, such that I know how much I have in my bank account at any time, which is shown on the chart at the bottom of the image.

The white area at the top is regular monthly payments, for things like shopping, council tax, water rates phone bills, an amount for buying what Hay calls 'crap' from e-Bay or Facebook Market, etc. 

The yellow area is monthly savings for bills that come once a year, like road tax, insurance and servicing on cars, memberships and self-assessment tax payments, for which I put something away each month (the self-assessment payments are calculated in another page of the spreadheet, on a monthly basis, drawing from other spreadsheets containing my invoices). The blue cells are the month in which planned disbursements become due for payment, after which they are saved up for again on a monthly basis. They go blue automatically when the amount for the next month is less than the previous month, using a formula that performs a comparison, and the amount is automatically added to the payments section in the light blue line.

Under the main matrix are all sources of monthly income - wages, pensions, etc.

Then the spreadsheet calculates what is remaining after all payments and amounts being saved for future dates are taken out, displaying the result on the chart at the bottom. If the line is growing, all is well, and I know I am obeying Mr Micawber's rule of happiness. If it's level, then I may be in line for a surprise with an unexpected payment. If it goes down, I know I need to reappraise my spending habits to avoid debtor's prison. 

Using this simple spreadsheet (I say simple, because I've always been rather adept at using spreadhseets) to know exactly what will be in my bank account 12 months hence.

Yes, it requires some knowledge of Excel, but not an extraordinary knowledge. Something like this should be taught in schools.